“I don’t believe you. Communications don’t come and go that freely.”

Monokeros made an amused sound.

“Keep your fictional Goddess close then, and scramble to stay out of my way.”

“She’ll save you too. She’ll save all of us. Those who served her before she had that control will live lives of luxury.”

“You’d be her slaves. That’s her power.”

“I’d be her slave and I’d be beautiful beyond compare. She has a lieutenant who creates pods. Sensory deprivation and plastic surgery in one. She ran a whole world, and she’ll run it again. I could go anywhere, any country or city, and enjoy the sights, party, be waited on hand and foot.”

“And your victims? You pretended to set up a hero team and baited young heroes and heroines in, only to kill them.”

“They aren’t truly dead if they live on in our hearts, or in my heart. Haven’t you been listening?”

Ashley was silent for a long time.

“I see.”

“I like you, Ashley the second.”

“Swansong, if you must distinguish.”

“Ah, I have a fondness of using ‘the second’, ‘the third’, ‘the fourth’. I was the fourth Unicorn. There was a boy who applied to join my team. My second Paul. It’s like a way of keeping count as everything marches on.”

The view bobbed as Ashley nodded.

“As I said, I like you. It’s my habit to jab and cut when I like something, that’s all. Your friend? She’s not in any danger from me.”

“You’re a known liar, Monokeros. A deceiver. You were a spider drawing others into your web.”

“I was a unicorn, that every young child wants a few fleeting moments with. Wonder, awe, and the fantastical. And when they tell those stories in the children’s books, that’s so often where the story ends. Sometimes a quest, sometimes a moralizing about beauty or the nature of innocence, but most often it’s an end to that section and set of descriptions. Nobody writes an epic about the life lived after the unicorn is befriended. It’s the moment that matters.”

Ashley was silent.

“I don’t want your friend because she isn’t beautiful. I’m sorry, but she’s scuffed, and it’s on the face. I saw it when I got a glimpse of her. I can accept other scars, but I draw the line at the face.”

“The lines are showing in your own face, Monokeros,” Ashley said.

“Unkind,” Monokeros said, but there was a note of emotion in it.

“I might deal with that pod maker before he can fix those lines around the eyes. Maybe that would be fitting punishment for using your power on my friend.”